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UK - XL Video supplied video production and crew for the just completed UK arena leg of The Script's Science & Faith world tour, which was the biggest production to date for the Irish rockers whose very distinctive sound and superlative live performances have built up a massive following.

Paul 'Eggy' Eggerton is the band's video director, working closely with engineer Wolfgang 'Wolfie' Schramm. They came onboard and helped the creative team after being recommended by co-lighting designer Jamie Thompson with whom they had worked on the Biffy Clyro tour. Their brief from the off on the camera mix was to be experimental and give it an edge, a vibe and make it something different from a standard IMAG show.

XL Video's director Des Fallon comments, "The Script are one of the most exciting young bands of the moment, their music is inventive and refreshing, and we're pleas

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UK - Midas' new analogue console with FireWire interface, the 'digilogue' VeniceF, has completed its first-ever tour with Eliza Doolittle, whose FOH engineer John Delf, purchased one of the first off the UK production line for his own use.

Delf encountered the VeniceF during a PRO6 training day at Midas. "I saw a prototype that wasn't even assembled, and when I heard about what you could do with the built in 32x32 FireWire interface I was blown away and started thinking about all the different applications I could use it for," he says. "I decided to buy one there and then, without having heard or played with it as I was confident it would have that Midas sound. I tour with lots of different bands, plus I wanted a desk for my own studio, and I'd always wanted to own a Midas desk, so this seemed the perfect solution."

He continues, "It feels more like a

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By Design Day - Although 23 April has passed, it's not too late to support By Design Day 2011, which raises money for Light Relief in the UK and Behind the Scenes in the US and Canada. Some of the industry's top designers pledged that day's royalties to the two charities while others are choosing to make a straightforward donation. By Design Day is being championed this year by an illustrious group of international designers from a number of design disciplines including Neil Austin, Ken Billington, Paule Constable, Jonathan Deans, Rick Fisher, Howard Harrison, Scott Lehrer, Tony Meola, Scott Pask, Ken Posner, Jennifer Tipton, and Hugh Vanstone.

Royalties have been pledged from shows on stages all over the world including Hamlet and Moonlight (Jon Clark); Warhorse, Clybourne Park, and Les Mis 25th Anniversary Tour (Constable); La Cage Aux Fo

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UK - A chance conversation 21 years ago led to the invention of the now ubiquitous

Le Mark PAL Road Case label. As with most inventions, the demand came first when the question was put by west London-based SPS to Le Mark's MD Stuart Gibbons: "Can you build be a road case label that I can write on over & over again and will stick like . . . a limpet to a blanket and never fall off?"

Along with screen printing colleague Kevin Isaac, Stuart Gibbons created the first ever Plastic Adhesive Laminate (PAL) Road Case label under the then (but now forgotten) Roadie Label name.

Le Mark has chosen to produce a 21st anniversary celebration version of their original Roadie Label - this time, however, with a glowing photo luminious background bearing the slogan: "Light in a Dark Place".

Le Mark have agreed to support Stage Hand as their 2011/12 season charity and wil

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UAE - Eighteen leading local technical and production contractors will supply equipment, crew, services and technical expertise free for a concert taking place in Dubai on 27 April 2011, at the Aviation Club in Garhoud, which will be in support of Peace One Day.

UB40's Ali Campbell and a full ten piece band will be topping the bill on 27 April, and this will be followed by two further evenings of action-packed shows including a host of local artists.

The main concert sponsors are Al Laith Event Services, Creative Technology, Delta Sound, EFM Event Logistics and Neumann & Mueller.

Staging, roofing, FOH, barriers and production village cabins will be provided by Al Laith Event Services; lighting and rigging by Neumann & Mueller; sound by Delta; LED screens, projection and cameras by CT, with logistical support from freighting experts, EFM Event Logistics.

A further 13 local

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UK - Thin Lizzy are using a DiGiCo's 500th SD8 console on monitors for their current tour. Brian Downey, Scott Gorham and Darren Wharton are joined onstage by Marco Mendoza, former Almighty frontman Ricky Warwick and Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell. All are very much from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of rock so, for the band's recent UK and European tour, monitor engineer Phil Shenton used the tried-and-tested formula that has served hard rock well for decades.

"My remit was that the band wants to keep it old school," says Shenton. "No in-ears, it's six loud wedge mixes, side-fills and an analogue rock 'n' roll sound.

"My good friend Matt Coton of BCS Audio had been lucky enough to win the 500th SD8 at PLASA 2010," Phil continues. "I've always been a fan of DiGiCo consoles, so I gave Matt a call and hired the SD8 for the UK

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Italy - Lighting designer Massimo Tomasino has extended his relationship with SGM's popular Synthesis 700 and Giotto 400 moving head spots, featuring them extensively in the design for Patty Pravo's current Nella Terra dei Pinguini tour.

Having worked with the pop legend - whose own career spans four decades - since 2005, he has a clear fix on the type of set design that suits her best. "With her elegant pop/rock style I like to work with a lot of rear lighting," he says.

This time around, Tomasino designed both the lighting and the scenography, with a scalable set which would be equally dynamic in the smaller theatres as in the large arenas and amphitheatres. "I needed moving lights that would deliver a strong brightness and at the same time run very silent, especially when touring theatres.

"The set list contains many slow songs, with soft dynami

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USA - Stage Technologies Las Vegas has announced the latest schedule of its popular three-day training course - An introduction to automation and the eChameleon suite. The first session dates are 1-3 August inclusive, with dates for last-quarter training sessions to be announced later in the year. This course is aimed at programmers and operators as well as professionals from other disciplines interested in learning the features of eChameleon software.

Utilising Stage Technologies control interfaces, delegates will be given an opportunity to get hands on with eChameleon and learn some of the current techniques and principles used to plot and run some of the biggest shows in the world. eChameleon is the common software platform across all Stage Technologies control consoles, offering unrivalled ease of use, power and flexibility.

The three-day course will cover the funda

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Canada - Montreal's Les Grands Ballets Canadien recently purchased an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system following a trial run on a three week production of Leonce et Lena. The Company selected a system comprising an iDR-32 MixRack and iLive-R72 Control Surface due to its compactness, flexibility and versatility, which would be suitable for both touring and installed in their home venue, the Theatre Maisonneuve at the Place des Arts.

Audio sources included a mixture of pre-recorded tracks, sound effects and a live orchestra. Three Macbooks, two installed at FOH and one in the orchestra pit, were set up to run different software packages, including Cricket V2, Qlab V2 and ILive Editor. The pit Macbook contained organ tracks to be played by one of the musicians, while all additional music and sound effects had redundant back-ups and the musicians tracks were controlled from

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India - Earlier this year, AbhangaNaad: The Voice of Devotion took place on the University Grounds of Shivaji University in Kolhapur. Featuring approximately 2,500 Warkari (devotees of Lord Vithoba) singing in unison and accompanied by 1,350 Dhols (traditional Indian 'dhangar'drums), the event celebrated divine love in the presence of His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, also known as guruji.

This massive concert attracted more than 120,000 devotees plus another 3m television viewers throughout India. Sound reinforcement for an event of this magnitude required loudspeaker systems that could project over a large area with excellent speech intelligibility and music reproduction characteristics. D.A.S. Audio's Aero Series line array system was chosen for the task.

Organised in a bid to attract youth to Indian folk traditions, AbhangaNaad featured devotional songs and meditation as

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Greece - The Costa Navarino complex stretches for two kilometres along the coast of the Messinia region of Greece and comprises two five star deluxe resort hotels, golf courses, restaurants, conference facilities, spas and dedicated activity centres for teenagers and children.

Yamaha's Greek importer Philippos Nakas SA won the tender to supply and install a high quality audio system throughout the site, playing background music in all the public areas such as bars, restaurants, children's play centres, hotel lobbies and reception areas.

System designer Vasilis Drimouras chose a Cobranet-based network, due to its cost-effectiveness and also because any latency is consistent throughout the network. Divided into 85 zones, the system features 32 Yamaha DME4io-C satellite DME units and 110 XH-200 distribution amplifiers to power its loudspeakers.

The system is used to simultaneou

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UK - Digital mixing console manufacturer DiGiCo has been awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category. This is the first time DiGiCo has won the award in this category, having previously received an award in 2005 in the Innovation category. The current award has been granted for almost doubling its overseas earnings and exporting the vast majority of its products since its incorporation in 2002.

"As a UK company, manufacturing in the UK, it's especially gratifying and significant to be recognised by Buckingham Palace and the board of the Queen's Award Office in this way," says DiGiCo managing director, James Gordon. "It's testament to the strength of the DiGiCo team and to all our international partners, who have worked extremely hard to help us achieve this. We couldn't have done it without them."

DiGiCo's first digital cons

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UAE - Meyer Sound has announced the incorporation of Meyer Sound Middle East, located in Dubai Media City in United Arab Emirates. Serving the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and North Africa, the new office will put customers in closer reach to Meyer Sound's offerings that include technical support, design services, and education, in addition to its high-performance loudspeakers, active acoustic technology, and system integration tools, says the company.

"The development of the AV industry in the Middle East has made it essential for us to form a strategic presence in Dubai, which will serve as an important regional hub for our business operations in the territory," says Helen Meyer, executive vice president of Meyer Sound. "This new office will give local audio professionals better access to the complete portfolio of our products and services, and allow us

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UK - Delegates from the National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural have just returned from two days in Leeds' Royal Armouries. They were attending the annual Focus event run by Skills Academy Industry Member PLASA.

This free exhibition of some of the most up-to-date lighting and sound technology in the world provided an excellent opportunity to explore the knowledge and skills required to make a career in technical theatre and live music. It was attended by students, young people and the generally interested - as well as industry professionals.

Also exhibiting were Skills Academy Industry Members Stage Technologies, White Light, BECTU (the Media & Entertainment Union) and the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT). During the course of the two-day event, the Skills Academy also welcomed two new technical service provider Industry Members: the Production Service

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Qatar - The partnership between Qatar and AVtech tech has been getting stronger as Doha is emerging as a major venue for international sport events. Qatar hosted the 2011 AFC Asian Cup finals from January 7 to 29 this year. It was the 15th time the tournament has been held and the second time it has been hosted by Qatar.

Since the 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006, AVtech has been providing all broadcast, AV solutions for sports venues and games. So when it came to the AFC Asian cup, AVtech was the obvious choice.

AVtech is a leading supplier of high-end audio, video, broadcast and lighting equipment from the some of the most reputable manufacturers in the world. The company is well known for designing leading-edge live performance systems and projects with superb performance-ready systems in the field of sound, lighting, video and multimedia applications.

For ACF, AVtech, along w

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Italy - Christie provided its high definition Christie HD10K-M projectors and MicroTiles in support of Tom Dixon's Multiplex exhibition during Milan Design Week, held 11-17 April, 2011.

Multiplex was a 400sq.m installation, created in partnership with BlackBerry PlayBook and included a pop-up viewing theatre, broadcasting centre, restaurant, shop and gallery, where one could explore the multifaceted world of Tom Dixon integrated with the cutting edge technology of the BlackBerry PlayBook and Christie. Unlike traditional exhibition booths at the Milan Design Week, Multiplex aimed to give visitors a trail of sensations created through each of the sections exploring the ideas of luminosity and technology.

A Broadcasting Centre with Christie HD10K-M DLP projector featured images of trends from throughout the fair. The Viewing Theatre used a Christie HD10K-M projecto

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USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced their sponsorship of a series of HOW-TO Church Sound workshops presented by Fits and Starts Productions.

This successful workshop series has toured cities and churches across America for seven years, and kicks off another season in 2011, offering six new tour segments of six cities each, plus several private training sessions. The programme features full eight- hour hands-on Live Sound for Worship workshops with equipment fully integrated, as well as a Recording and Podcasting Seminar.

Designed for the church audio volunteer, live sound personnel, media and praise band members, each workshop is produced by industry veteran Hector La Torre and presented by sound reinforcement engineer Mike Sokol. The programme offers attendees a rare opportunity to learn about church sound systems in a professional manner.

The HOW-TO Chu

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USA - Originally opened in 1941 as the Plaza Movie Theatre, the Texas Music Theatre has gone through a variety of incarnations, including a live theatre, cinema, restaurant and live music venue. Shutting its doors in 2008, this already-decaying building went further downhill, becoming another clichéd historic building locals spoke about with regret, wondering when some enterprising team would swoop in and uncover the space's potential.

In March of this year that dream was realized when the Texas Music Theatre opened its doors, offering a solid rotation of live country, country-rock, indie rock, blues and tejano-salsa-latin. The venue's $2.4m renovation includes new flooring, new décor, and a powerful new audio system built around Renkus-Heinz line arrays.

Gray Gregson, head of production comments, "It's a big, flat, square brick box with high ceilings. We ha

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USA - The next PLASA Control Protocols Plugfest will take place 22-24 July at the DFW Marriott Solana in Westlake, Texas. The event brings colleagues and competitors together to further the industry by testing the limits of control protocols and working out the bugs they encounter. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Plugfest began in January 2009 as part of the ESTA (now PLASA) Technical Standards Programme by members of various Control Protocols Task Groups represent a variety of manufacturers. Twice a year, when they are all in the same place at the same time, they bring controllers, lights, analyzers, and various other tools and devices, and connect them all through a network to look for and resolve problems. People attend from all around the world in an effort to improve their products.

Plugfest was originally created to support the Remote Device Management protocol (ANSI E1.2

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USA - From serving as a standard convention hall to hosting concerts and events as extreme as midget car races, the Expo Centre at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana, relied on ESCO Communications to install a sound system to easily accommodate sound requirements for the immense variety of events at the venue. Designed by Kansas-City based Acoustical Design Group (ADG), the system at the 108,000sq.ft Expo Centre features a wealth of JBL VP Series loudspeakers.

Working to design an impactful sound system, ADG had to ensure the entire hall, as well as each individual section, would perform flawlessly. An assortment of 116 JBL VP7215 powered loudspeakers are suspended from the ceiling and fed via a Soundweb London system consisting of BLU-160 and BLU-120 processors.

"We wanted a system that could offer traditional conventions and tradeshows perfect

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USA - The Big Country Baptist Assembly (BCBA) in Lueders, Texas, is installing a Technomad Berlin 6040 weatherproof loudspeaker on the roof of its new worship centre to broadcast news and prayer sessions across a designated area of its 100-acre campus. The Berlin will also play background music, creating a soothing atmosphere for the approximately 17,000 campers who attend every year.

According to Ray Clark, owner of the Texas-based installation company Tru-Sound Studio, the Berlin 6040 is the most ideal fit for the BCBA campus. Clark noted that one Berlin 6040 loudspeaker is all that is needed to cover a specific recreational area of the campus where most of the outdoor activities take place.

"The Technomad Berlin 6040 is fully weatherproof, which is necessary to withstand the extreme climate conditions in Texas," said Clark. "It also delivers pristine directio

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USA - Nearly 90 COLORdash Batten TRI LED wash lights have taken the stage on The Voice, a new star-studded show debuting on NBC this week.

Modelled after a successful television series in Holland, The Voice is a vocal competition hosted by Carson Daly and featuring Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as celebrity judges and vocal coaches.

The Chauvet linear tri-colored LED lights were specified by lighting designer Oscar Dominguez, principal at Darkfire Lighting Design. They are strategically placed under the large centralized performance floor and at one end of a large expanse of stage floor where the judges sit. The Voice is created by John de Mol, who will executive produce along with Burnett and Audrey Morrissey.

"We are thrilled by this opportunity to showcase these great fixtures," Jamy Brock, director of sales

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USA - After 79 years of ministry, Central Baptist Church celebrated much more than the New Year this January as it launched a portable extension of its permanent church location. Bringing the ministry one step closer to its vision of 'one church meeting in multiple locations', the portable church has been equipped with an Aviom Pro64 digital snake, creating an audio solution that is both cost-effective and easily expandable.

Located in Jonesboro, AR, Central Baptist Church's permanent location seats about 2,500 members and hosts many services each week. Over the past year, the church has been working to expand into a multi-campus church, including the launch of the portable Journey Campus, that administers contemporary services to Arkansas State University (ASU) students and the community's growing population. EliteMULTIMEDIA was tasked with designing a setup for Journey Campus

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UK - The National Theatre's dramatic new stage adaptation of Frankenstein is directed by Danny Boyle and the talk of the show is the spectacular lightbulb ceiling which greets audiences on their arrival into the theatre and then creates stunning images suggesting the industrial age and the power of electricity during the show.

Triangular in form, the ceiling consists of a mirrored surface below which hang just over 3100 assorted lightbulbs. Conceived by Boyle, set designer Mark Tildesley and lighting designer Bruno Poet it was intended to "represent the forces of electricity harnessed by Frankenstein, and to provide a dazzling light for the moment the creature is born and opens his eyes for the first time," the lighting designer explains.

LED arrays of this type are now commonplace, but Poet was very keen to use tungsten "for its warmth, and because it be

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